Kyle McArthur

Rise Against refines new sound

When Rise Against released its album Appeal to Reason in 2008, there was a big uproar amongst their fan base. The album had a very different sound compared to the previous albums Rise Against had released. This change created a large split in the fans, with some embracing the change and others hating it. It seems like the band is aware of this fact because their new album Endgame, released on March 15, is best described as a fusion between their old and new sound that is sure to please.

Increased Dorm space will reduce triples in Fall

With Room Draw right around the corner, many students are wondering about the amount of space available for housing next year as the Room Draw April 20 deadline approaches. However, according to the Director of Residential Life Delaphine Hudson, there will be no problem with housing space and there will be more space available.

“Returning students aren’t the problem. I’m not too worried about them,” Hudson said. According to Hudson, the conditions should actually improve for many students due to added living options.

An important addition to the increase is the Arbor Ridge apartments that will be available to seniors and international students next year.

Room draw moves online, more convenient

The future is now; along with everything else moving online, you will now have the ability to pick your room for next year from the comfort of your room. Whether you hope to reclaim your current room or flee and never return. By now, you would be hard pressed to not have seen a poster, card or e-mail advertising the change to Room Draw this year. Residential Life has decided to change Room Draw into an online process and I could not agree with this decision more. Making Room Draw an online process will make it faster, easier and more convenient than ever before.

Rising tuition due to cost of school maintenance

On Tuesday, March 8 President Sharon Herzberger announced in an e-mail to parents and students that the Board of Trustees agreed to an increase in tuition costs by about four percent. This increase means that the tuition for the 2011-2012 school year will be $36,632.
Herzberger explains that the costs for the school go up every year. She lists major costs for the school such as health insurance for faculty and staff, electricity and fuel, which has gone up dramatically in recent year.

Locked out? Time to pay the price

The official policy for students who get locked out of their rooms is that a student be let back in to his or her room for free up to three times in a semester, after that each additional time will cost the resident $5.

Even though this policy has been set in stone and put into effect, there are many people who are unsure of the details.

When a student is locked out of his or her room, the easy fix to the problem is to ask an RA to let you back in.

When this occurs, the student is supposed to be given an actual coupon that says that this is a freebie. “It’s like a get out of jail free card,” Stauffer Resident Advisor Kevin Landucci said. The next two times this occurs it is also free. After that, however, students must pay $5 each time they are locked out of their room.

Blacking out

Maybe you have big plans that you are really excited about or maybe you are hoping for a quiet weekend to relax. Maybe you are hoping to just “go with the flow” and see where your weekend takes you.

For all you know, this could be the greatest weekend of your life if everything goes perfectly.

You transform into the life of the party, you make endlessly amazing jokes for your friends or maybe you even find a way to save the day. The potential for this weekend seems practically limitless, but what if Monday came around and you could not remember any of it?

All of us have heard about how dangerous drinking too much alcohol can be. The example we hear about most is when you drink too much and blackout.

Watching our habits, diets and choices to prevent weight gain

As a first-year, the freshman 15 should probably be something that is on my mind, more so than someone of a different year for obvious reasons. Despite this, it is not something that really bothers me because I realize that it is a choice. Just because you show up at college does not mean you are going to suddenly start gaining weight through some unexplainable and mystic force.

The reality of the situation is that I have to make the same choices now as I did back in high school. The only difference here is that I have full reign to make those choices without some higher authority, such as my parents, guiding me in a particular direction.